


June

by peterparkr



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Bisexual Tony Stark, But mostly fluff, Coming Out, F/M, Fluff, Gay Peter Parker, Gay Pride, M/M, Tony Stark Has A Heart, because I can't stop myself, irondad activated, with the tiniest bit of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-27
Updated: 2019-06-27
Packaged: 2020-05-20 19:19:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19383121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peterparkr/pseuds/peterparkr
Summary: Peter's struggling to come out and Tony's the complete embodiment of 'he's a little confused, but he's got the spirit'.Takes place sometime after homecoming and the whole civil war situation was resolved somehow!





	June

**Author's Note:**

> Pride month is coming to an end, so enjoy this fluffy coming out piece before ffh destroys us all!

Tony keeps stealing glances at Peter as they work in the lab. Well, as Tony works, Peter doesn’t seem to be doing much of anything. He hasn’t said more than two words to Tony since his initial greeting upon arrival.

Tony mentally scans through dates. The last time Peter was this quiet, it was the anniversary of his uncle’s death. Unfortunately, the kid has had a lot of terrible things happen to him in his young life, so there are quite a few incidents that could be the source of the problem.

An emotional crisis has never been Tony’s strong suit. He would gladly take an alien invasion or an evil android over it any day. Hell, he’d even take a good old-fashioned terrorist kidnapping if it got him out of trying and inevitably failing to coach this kid through a problem that Tony probably would just repress forever if it was his own.

Maybe he should call May.

But finally, he sucks it up. He is Tony Stark after all. Let it never be said that he backs away from a challenge.

“You okay over there?” Tony waves a hand in front of Peter’s face. “Earth to Spider-Kid.”

Peter blinks a few times and then shoots Tony an unconvincing smile. “Sorry, sorry, just a little distracted. What are you working on, Mr. Stark?”

“Distracted by what?” Tony presses, ignoring Peter’s question entirely.

The kid shrugs and swivels in his chair so that Tony can no longer see his face. And nope. That’s just not even that good of an evasion tactic, he thought that Peter would have learnt some good ones from him by now. He hooks his foot around the bottom of Peter’s chair to turn it back towards him, but Peter just stares at the floor.

“Fine, don’t tell me,” Tony sighs. “But trust me, it’ll feel better if you talk about it. I had to learn that the hard way.”

Not technically true, Tony still hasn’t really learned that lesson. But Peter doesn’t have to know that.

Tony goes back to work, or at least makes it look like he does. He waves his hand around the projected hologram in front of him, picks up some tools, and even orders FRIDAY to do a couple of things to make it look convincing. But really, he’s just watching Peter out of the corner of his eye. The kid’s looking at him intently, the way he only does when he thinks that Tony isn’t paying attention.

“Do you ever—“

Tony immediately turns his full attention to whatever Peter’s about to say, but of course that’s too strong. Peter cuts off as soon as Tony’s eyes are on him. Tony mentally berates himself. Why is he so bad at this? His first instinct is to blame it on Howard but he feels like that’s a bit long ago for him still to be hung up on.

“Never mind, it’s really not important,” Peter mutters.

“Curiosity killed the cat, Pete, so it will surely kill an old man with a heart condition. Spit it out.”

Peter bites his lip, nervously. “You’re not that old, Mr. Stark.”

He looks up at Tony afterwards almost as if wanting confirmation. It makes Tony’s heart twist. Maybe this _is_ about someone’s death that Tony isn’t remembering. And he just had to go and make a joke about dying. Typical.

“It’s just that sometimes, I feel like, with Spider-man—and you know you’re a hero—I don't know—I feel like nobody knows who I am.”

“That’s kind of the point,” Tony says gently. “Unless you want to tell people, which is also fine, you know I didn’t last a week before I told the whole world that I was the dumbass in the flying can.”

Tony’s not sure where this is coming from. Peter had always been so sure of keeping his identity secret. Of course, there had been some slip-ups with his friend and his aunt finding out, but those were accidents.

“No, I don’t want everyone to know.” Peter scrunches his forehead together. “It’s more of an understanding thing, I just want to be able to meet someone and like, relate to them? On every level. But I can’t because I don’t _want_ everyone to know.”

He laughs a little bit, looking anywhere except at Tony.

“This is stupid. It doesn’t even make any sense. I’m sorry I even brought it up Mr. Sta—“

“I think it makes perfect sense,” Tony interrupts.

He starts running through solutions. There have got to be more mutant children in the world. Tony could create a Facebook-type-thing specifically for them, connect the kid to some similarly powered peers. If he can’t find enough organically made super-kids he could always create some more on his own. And he should invite Wanda over more often, she’s kind of young still.

Tony shakes himself out of his planning. Admittedly, tracking down super-children seems like a suspect thing to do, and creating them is even worse, but the Wanda thing isn’t bad.

“FRIDAY remind me to convince Wanda to come over,” Tony says.

“What?”

“Nothing, never mind.” Tony hones his gaze back onto Peter, who squirms slightly in his seat. “I totally get what you’re saying. But, I have to say, I’m a little offended. I know both Spider-Man and Peter Parker. _And_ you just said that I’m not that old so, you can always lay stuff on me. Bring me your superhero guilt and your high school crushes, I can handle it.”

Peter blushes deep red at the mention of crushes and starts spluttering nonsense. Tony let’s him go on for a while in amusement before finally putting an end to it.

“Seriously though, kid, I know you, all the parts. And so does your aunt, and your friend—what’s his name? Nick? Neil?”

To Tony’s surprise, Peter’s expression storms over.

“None of you do.” He mumbles it under his breath, but Tony still catches it.

“What? What does that mean?” 

Peter just shakes his head. “Nothing—doesn’t matter. Sorry Mr. Stark, I’ve got to head home. Thanks for letting me come over.”

Peter’s out the lab door before Tony can tell him that he can drive him home or that he’s welcome any time. The now empty seat next to him spins slightly, the only sign that Peter was there. He can’t help but feel like he colossally screwed up. The worst part is, he doesn’t even know how.

* * *

Tony downloads a parenting book. He receives a call from Pepper just as he starts skimming the table of contents.

“Would you like to explain the email-receipt I just got? Please tell me this isn’t another custody case.”

Tony frowns. His own fiancé doesn’t have any faith in him. None of the alleged custody cases have ever held any merit.

“Relax, I’ve got a spider-related situation,” he explains.

Pepper sighs. Tony is fluent in Pepper’s sighs. This one says that he’s being ridiculous but it’s not the worst thing that he’s ever done. It also says that she finds it a little endearing.

“If you think there’s a real problem with Peter, you should call his aunt. You know, his actual legal guardian,” she says.

“You don’t think I can handle this!”

“I didn’t say that, Tony.”

“I can handle this—I’ve got a _book_!”

This time Pepper’s sigh indicates that she no longer finds him endearing.

* * *

Tony’s up late into the night, mulling over the abrupt ending to his conversation with Peter. He alternates between skimming through relevant passages in his new book and tinkering with suits until FRIDAY interrupts him.

“Incoming message from Peter Parker, sir.”

Tony’s brow furrows. He glances at the time—3:11 AM.

“Read it, Fri,” he says, simultaneously bringing up diagnostics on Peter’s suit.

The suit is offline. Tony prays that means that Peter is safe at home and not that the suit has been decimated.

“From Peter Parker, ‘Hi, Mr. Stark. Are you up?’” 

Tony almost orders FRIDAY to patch him through to Peter right then. But he just read a chapter on being an overbearing parent. That strategy could drive Peter away.

He pulls up the text conversation with Peter in front of him. He reads Peter’s message a few times and then tentatively types his own.

_Yes. Are you okay?_

He presses send and bites his lip. He should have said more. He should have just called the kid. For god’s sake, Peter could be bleeding out and he’d probably send Tony that exact same text.

Just as he’s about to say _screw it_ and call Peter, a message comes through.

_I’m fine! I’m home, just wanted to talk to you about something if that’s okay_

Tony doesn’t hesitate a second to respond.

_Shoot._

Tony watches Peter’s typing bubble appear and then disappear. Then it appears again and lingers for a long time. Tony wills it to transform into a message. Instead, the bubble fades away.

Tony groans in frustration. He thinks about calling May but he’s afraid that will break his and Peter’s ‘sacred bond of trust’ as the book calls it. Peter’s home, he’s not in danger. Tony can afford to give him time.

* * *

Peter’s been avoiding Tony for a week, which is fine. Except that it’s not. Tony’s ready to give the parenting book a two-star review and call it quits.

The kid has only texted him once, just to apologize for bothering him so late and explain that the cryptic text had been about homework.

Tony doesn’t buy it for a second. So, he decides to throw out the book’s advice. Screw the rules. When the plan doesn’t work, Tony Stark changes the plan.

He goes to Peter’s school. It’s summer, but Peter’s doing a robotics camp.

It’s not the first time that he has picked Peter up. He doesn’t do it too often though, because then it might lose its effect. He always makes a big deal of sitting there with the top down, giving just a simple nod when he sees Peter. He likes to see all the little twerps gape and writhe with jealousy as they watch Peter walk to his car. It never fails to make the kid almost as red as his mask. But, he also looks proud. Tony loves it.

The whole production goes exactly as planned, and soon Peter’s hopping in the car with his cheeks flushed and a barely concealed grin. Take that, book. 

“Where to, kid?” Tony asks as he speeds out of the parking lot.

“What do you mean?”

“Not a trick question. I’ve got a free afternoon, thought we could do something if you can make some time in your busy schedule.” 

If he would have asked for a trip to Europe, Tony would have arranged a flight, but of course Peter asks for pizza. 

Tony has FRIDAY direct them to his favorite pizzeria in the city. He remembers taking Pepper there a while ago. He should take her out more. He makes a mental note to tell FRIDAY to make a reminder.

Peter chatters happily throughout their meal. He tells Tony about his week, from the robot that his team is building in the camp to the epic bank robbery that he stopped on Wednesday (Tony had already watched the footage from the suit, but keeps quiet about that).

Tony’s almost convinced that he had been completely overreacting. Maybe Peter’s behavior in the lab last week was just typical teenage moodiness. Maybe he hadn’t been texting Tony because it had been a busy week. Maybe the late night message really had been about homework.

But then, somewhere between Peter’s fourth and fifth slice of pizza, he gets this far away look on his face. Tony replays their last couple comments in his head, but it all seems pretty standard to him. They had been talking about plans for the rest of the summer.

“Are you full or should I order another pizza?” Tony asks, trying to bring Peter back from wherever his mind has taken him.

He hates watching Peter forcibly contort his face into a smile. 

“I’m good. May will probably have dinner for me, too.” 

The smile falters and he looks at Tony with wide eyes.

“Mr. Stark—I,”

Tony holds his breath. Peter tears his eyes from Tony, fiddles with his hand a little bit. When he looks up again the forced smile is back.

“Thank you so much for hanging out with me,” Peter says.

Something is up. Tony needs to figure out what it is. Worst case scenarios are cycling through his brain at lightning speed.

Tony drives Peter home. This ride is more quiet than the one to the restaurant—they both are deep in thought. About halfway through the journey, they turn down a street and his vision is bombarded by rainbows. Right. It’s June. He gazes around at the decorations. Rainbows are a little tacky for his taste, but the sentiment is nice.

Out of the corner of his eye he sees Peter look up at the display too. He must sense that Tony’s watching him because his eyes dart over and then down into his lap.

Interesting.

“They’re nice,” Tony says, gesturing out the window.

Peter doesn’t look up, just shrugs his shoulders a little.

Something clicks in Tony’s brain.

* * *

“FRIDAY, find a book on raising a gay kid.”

Well, maybe the kid’s not specifically gay, but it should work as an umbrella term for search purposes.

Tony had slept with men in the past. He’d even dated a few, but he had never felt the need to disclose that information to the world. It’s never really bothered him—Tony has always just done whatever he wants. But Peter doesn’t seem to feel so flippantly about it.

“I think I found an article that might interest you, sir.” FRIDAY pulls up a screen in front of Tony.

_10 Things You Can Do To Make Your Child Feel Safe Enough to Come Out_

Tony smiles. It’s perfect.

He skims the list. All of the points seem easy enough, he just needs to plan.

Number one is ‘Show your support to LGBT charities and causes’ so Tony makes a large donation to the Trevor Project. Then he makes a few calls, one of them is to Peter. Tony invites him to tour one of Stark Industries’ factories.

“You have to do actual intern-y stuff sometimes,” he says by way of explanation. “Keep up pretenses.”

The kid spends a lot of time in Tony’s personal labs, so Tony was afraid he would find the prospect of going to a random factory mundane. But, Peter sounds excited about it, which is a relief. The plan is set in motion.

* * *

Tony’s distracted as he shows Peter around the facility. They had come into the factory through a back entrance and Tony has arranged the tour’s end in the lobby. He prays that the staff did what he asked. And that they did it correctly.

Peter doesn’t seem to notice that Tony is preoccupied. He enters each new room with vigor and an onslaught of questions for his mentor.

Tony breathes a sigh of relief when they finally enter the lobby. It’s exactly as Tony had asked. He grins while Peter blanches at the sight before him.

Tony finishes his closing spiel about the factory and then turns to look at the giant pride flag that is hanging down from the top of the lobby. It has very high ceilings, upwards of 50 feet by Tony’s estimate so the flag _is_ huge.

“As you can see,” Tony says, gesturing to the flag. “Stark Industries promotes equality.”

Tony expects a small smile on Peter’s face or anything that indicates he’s even slightly pleased with the display before him. Instead, the boy’s face is completely devoid of emotion. He refuses to meet Tony’s eyes.

Okay, then. Maybe Peter just thinks it’s a corporate ploy and not something that Tony actually supports. He will have to dig deep, go bigger, more personal.

* * *

Number four on the list is ‘Watch movies and TV shows with LGBT characters’. Seems easy enough, Peter loves movie nights.

Tony finds a list of the best movies with gay characters. He watches trailer after trailer, reads review after review. He’s looking for something appropriate. Preferably something where the gay character doesn’t die—why are there so many like that? 

He finally finds the perfect one.

He calls Peter to invite him over because the kid’s kind of been avoiding him again since the factory tour. He’s afraid that Peter won’t answer a text. 

Peter picks up after what Tony thinks is an unreasonably long time.

“Hey, Mr. Stark.” 

“You should stay at the compound this weekend. We can do some training stuff, intern stuff, all the stuff.”

The other end of the phone goes silent. Tony frowns. Peter has literally never rejected an opportunity to come to the compound, to do anything with Tony really, unless he has a prior engagement at school or with May. And if he had something else, he would already be sputtering apologies for it right now. So this is not good, Tony screwed up with the giant flag more than he had thought.

“Did I lose you?” Tony asks, his voice coming out a little too sharp. He hopes that Peter can’t tell over the phone.

“No—I—yeah, sure, I guess I’ll be there.”

“Don’t sound too enthusiastic.”

That’s met with another bout of silence. Tony wants to punch himself in the face. But at least Peter had agreed to come. Now, Tony just needs to make this weekend perfect.

* * *

By the time the weekend finally rolls around, Tony has a solid plan. He just needs to execute it.

Happy drops Peter off Friday afternoon. Tony had coerced Natasha to put aside some time to spar. Although, he’s pretty sure Nat enjoys doing it even without the incentives he gives her. Tony thinks he’s being extorted, but it’s fine. 

Tony leaves them to it, half-watching from a nearby bench. Peter bounds over to Tony when the training is over. He’s sweaty and tired, but overall looks much more happy than when he arrived at the compound. It gives Tony hope that this weekend will work out.

“Go grab a shower, kiddo,” he says. “I’ll be in the main lab.”

Peter nods and takes off towards his room. Tony heads up to the lab and starts laying out materials for Peter to work with. Peter arrives a half-hour later and the pair work in comfortable silence for the rest of the afternoon. Tony had recently got Peter started working on nano-tech and he looks at Peter’s design plans with pride when he shows them to him at the end of their lab time.

Tony orders chinese and Pepper and Nat join him and Peter for dinner. It’s a good night. Peter doesn’t seem upset anymore. His signature grin is back, not the awful forced thing that has been taking over his face recently.

Tony has Peter pick a movie for the four of them to watch. He hadn’t wanted to risk spooking Peter too soon, so he had opted to wait a little while to play the movie he had decided on.

Tony’s not surprised when the Star Wars opening crawl starts to roll across the screen.

The next day goes much like the previous afternoon. Tony lets Peter sleep until noon. Then a few hours are spent training with Nat and Clint. Tony even decides to step onto the mat without a suit, and promptly gets his ass whooped by a spy and a genetically enhanced super-kid. The only one he kind of holds his own against is Clint—kind of.

He let’s Peter take apart and put back together one of his old Iron Man suits. Peter does a fantastic job, as usual. Tony’s pretty sure that the suit looks better than it did before being taken apart, but he would never admit that out loud. He even lets Peter get in and try it after FRIDAY confirms that all the pieces are functional and back in their proper place.

Peter slams into the ceiling almost as soon as he fires the repulsors. He lands on the floor in a heap. Tony is about to go into full on panic mode when the head of the suit lifts off the ground.

“Awesome,” Peter says, almost reverently. 

It reminds Tony of his first suit test.

Tony wants it to be just him and Peter for tonight’s movie. When they finally emerge from the lab, he’s happy to see that everyone had listened to his instructions to make themselves scarce on Saturday night. They eat most of the leftovers in the fridge and then settle in front of the TV.

This is where Tony’s oscar-worthy performance is set to begin.

“What are we watching tonight, Mr. Stark?” Peter asks.

“Hmm, I don’t know.” He makes a big show of going through the possible movies to rent. He watches trailers for a few, but exits out of them even when Peter hums in interest.

Finally, _Love, Simon_ pops up. Tony tries to keep his swiping even as he makes his way over to it. He doesn’t want it to look planned.

“Oh,” Tony says. “I heard this was good.”

He can practically feel Peter stiffen next to him.

“Have you seen it, Pete?”

“Um, yeah.” His voice is flat, with a slight waver below it.

“We don’t have to watch it if you didn’t like it.” This is the part where the plan could go awry. If Peter just says that he doesn’t want to watch it, then that’s that.

“I didn’t say that! Just, uh, watch the trailer first? Make sure you want to watch it.”

Tony plays the trailer. He feels Peter watching him throughout. He’d seen it several times in preparation, so he knows exactly when to laugh, when to smile, when to look thoughtful. When it ends, Peter’s still watching him nervously, like he’s awaiting a verdict.

“Looks cute, let’s watch it.”

Peter looks mildly surprised and that just shows that Tony should have been doing better all along. Hopefully, he can make up for that now.

He presses play and the movie commences. Tony has one eye on the screen and the other on the pile of blankets with a human head next to him. The human head in question seems to be doing the same.

Tony doesn’t expect to cry. His plan was to show as much genuine emotion where appropriate in the film as possible, but here he is exceeding his own expectations. He gets all misty as the mom on the screen tells her kid that he can ‘breathe now, Simon’.

Peter sniffles next to him and the sound settles as a lump in Tony’s throat. He doesn’t want Peter to feel anything like the kid in the movie, ever. He kind of thinks that Peter already has.

The movie’s ending is cute, cheesy, but cute. Tony knows it was the right choice because of the small smile on Peter’s face. Tony doesn’t stop the credits from playing. The song is nice and Peter is happy. He can’t disturb the moment.

“Did you like it?” Peter asks.

He looks so hopeful, but tentative at the same time.

“His friends were assholes. Like, seriously, they let him sit alone at lunch and did nothing when those bullies set in!” 

Peter laughs, but he’s still looking at Tony for an answer.

“But it was good, kid, I really enjoyed it.”

Peter turns away from Tony with a smile on his face.

* * *

Happy arrives the next morning to ferry Peter home. Peter grabs his bags and heads for the door. He pauses and shoots Tony a meaningful look before leaving.

“What are you looking at? You know Happy doesn’t like to be kept waiting,” Tony jokes.

“Tony—I—“

And Tony’s eyebrows shoot up to his hairline. The kid is always so needlessly polite with the whole _Mr. Stark this, Mr. Stark that_. This could be The Moment. Tony’s not prepared for it. He didn’t actually make a plan for if the kid told him this weekend. He didn’t think they were even close to that yet. He wracks his brain for what to say. He should have read more articles about that part.

“I had a really good time this weekend,” Peter finishes after a few seconds of deafening silence.

Tony has a feeling that’s not what he was originally going to say. 

He can’t keep a grin off his face as he watches Peter walk out of the compound to Happy’s car on FRIDAY’s screens.

Once the car pulls away, Tony brings up the article. He’s close, closer than he thought he’d be at this point. If he executes one more item on this list perfectly, he thinks it might do the trick. 

Then he sees it, number seven: ‘Don’t lie about or hide the LGBT people already in your life.’ Tony can do one better than that. 

“FRIDAY, call Rogers.”

Tony taps his fingers impatiently as the call connects. He’d finally convinced Steve to get a phone that actually belongs in this decade, but he still seems to never use it. 

“Tony.” Steve’s voice finally comes through the line. 

Rogers has quite a particular way of saying his name that always manages to sound two parts exasperated, one part fond.

“Dinner at the compound on Tuesday, bring your boyfriend. Pepper and Peter will be there as well.”

He hears Steve stammering on the other end of the phone and sighs impatiently.

“Bring my boyfriend? Tony—what?”

“You know, Cousin Itt, with the hair. Is that why you chose him over me because I’m not opposed to letting mine grow.”

“No, I know who my boyfriend is.” Well, now it’s just three parts exasperated. “Why are you inviting us?”

“See you then!”

Tony should really call Steve more often. It’s good fun.

* * *

Steve and Bucky roll into the compound five minutes before Tony asked them to be there, which is different than the usual Rogers ten. Bucky must be mellowing him out a little, that’s good.

Tony’s grilling hamburgers and hotdogs outside on the nice little porch he had added on to this floor last summer, watching the road for Happy’s car to pull up with Peter. He hears Pepper making light conversation with Steve and Bucky as she finishes the mac and cheese. It’s not as awkward as it used to be—they’re healing and all that, moving forward like they always do. 

If they can help Peter, Tony might just forgive them for good.

Peter arrives ten minutes late, surprised but excited to see two unexpected heroes.

“Are you, like, best friends again?” Peter whispers to Tony as he sets the table.

“We’re getting there,” he replies.

They all sit down and start eating. Their guests throw praises and thanks towards Pepper and Tony for the meal, but he doesn’t have time for pleasantries. Part three of the plan begins now.

See, Tony’s not sure if Peter knows that Steve and Bucky are dating. It’s not something that the general public knows and Peter can be a bit obtuse when it comes to reading people in Tony’s experiences with the kid. He needs to get them to talk about their relationship, as much as possible.

“So, how are you two lovebirds?” Tony asks.

He feels Pepper’s eyes boring into him, can practically hear her silent question. _What are you doing now, Tony?_ Steve is giving him a similar look. But, Bucky and Peter seem unfazed.

“We’re good.” Bucky looks at Steve as he says it, eyes soft with little crinkles around them. 

Steve notices and his face softens into a smile. He nods in confirmation.

“Good, good. Anyone popping the question soon? You guys did get the memo that it’s legal now right? I know old men can struggle to keep up.”

Pepper kicks him under the table. Steve shoots Tony a murderous look. Peter promptly drops his fork. It clatters loudly on the table before falling all the way to the floor. 

Bucky still looks completely composed. “It’ll happen when it happens,” he shrugs. “Maybe I’ll take some notes from your proposal.”

Tony’s eyes narrow as Pepper snorts at the comment. What was wrong with his proposal? But he can’t dwell on that now, he needs to stay focused. 

The whole table shakes, followed by a small ow sorry as Peter re-emerges from underneath it. He’s gripping his retrieved fork so tightly that his knuckles are white.

“Wait,” Steve says. “I could be the one to propose.”

“Yeah, okay, big guy—“

“Are you guys going to the parade?” Tony interrupts.

“Tony,” Pepper practically hisses.

“Did you bring us here just to harass us about our relationship, Tony? What is this?”

Harass them? It hits Tony hard. They all think he’s being a homophobic asshole which is exactly the opposite of what this dinner is supposed to be doing. Tony glances at Peter who looks absolutely mortified, eyes darting back and forth between the adults at the table.

“What? No! I’ve slept with men!”

“Tony, Jesus Christ.” Pepper buries her head in her hands.

Steve leans back in his seat, staring at the ceiling as if asking god himself to whisk him away from this moment. Bucky is actually smirking. Tony can’t decide if it makes him like the guy more or less.

Peter stands up abruptly. “I’m gonna—“ He points toward the door and then scrambles out of the room.

That’s not good. Not at all how Tony wanted or expected this night to go. He wants to blame Rogers, but it kind of feels like maybe he screwed this up all by himself.

“Shit,” Tony mutters. 

He gets up to follow Peter, takes one step out of the room, but then turns around. He probably owes those guys an apology. 

“I, um, meant no disrespect,” he tells them. 

He doesn’t wait for their reaction, just turns back around and goes to Peter’s room. The door is closed but not locked. Tony knocks anyway. There’s no answer, so he pushes the door open slowly. Peter’s sitting on his bed, turned away from the entrance.

“Hey, Pete,” Tony says, gently.

Peter turns to face him. His eyes are red-rimmed but his jaw is set. 

“Did everyone know?” It sounds like an accusation. “Was it that obvious?”

A million thoughts run through Tony’s head. He doesn’t know how to respond. He tries to sort through different things he could say, what reaction he might get. He isn’t sure if he should pretend that he doesn’t know what Peter’s talking about, but that would probably be an insult to his intelligence. He finally settles on something simple—he shakes his head.

“Well they do now!”

He looks more angry than Tony’s ever seen him—way more than the day with the ferry which was the previous record. 

“Why would you do that? What exactly were you trying to do?” Peter’s voice breaks, but Tony feels like the child, chastised and scolded. “I was going to tell you, I was just working up to it.”

“Peter, I’m sorry, I was trying to help.” It sounds lame, lame, _lame_. “I know I—“

“Can you just get Happy to take me home?” Peter asks, but it doesn’t feel like a question.

“Peter—“

“I said I want to go home.”

* * *

Peter hasn’t talked to Tony since, and he’s pretty sure that the kid isn’t going to any time soon. He thinks that he really broke something between them this time, and not just the stupid ‘sacred bond of trust’. Peter could be gone for good. Tony doesn’t know how to deal with that.

He’s been wallowing mostly. 

Pepper’s only slightly sympathetic. “I’m sorry Tony, but what were you thinking?”

He doesn’t answer. He doesn’t know.

He hasn’t slept much since it happened. He just keeps working on new upgrades to the Spider-Man suit software. Mostly because he feels guilty and Peter’s all he can think about, but partly because it will be an excuse to get Peter over here again so Tony can apologize properly. He’s selfishly so grateful for Spider-Man, it means that Peter can’t ice him out forever. 

He’s doing just that, working on suit software, when FRIDAY gives him the alert. 

“Sir, Peter’s suit just sent an emergency update.”

Tony leaps out of his seat. “What happened?” 

He’s already tapped the housing unit on his chest twice and his armor is seeping down his limbs.

“Don’t worry boss, Peter’s vitals are fine. Karen just thought you should know that Peter is quite upset, but he won’t listen to her advice to call you or go home.”

“Take me to him,” Tony says.

He reaches Peter’s location in twenty minutes. The boy is crouched on all fours on a rooftop, peeking over the side of the building at the street. Below him is the parade—the big NYC pride parade. Tony should have known. 

“Hey, kid,” Tony says carefully. He doesn’t know exactly where they stand but he knows it’s no place good.

“It’s not what you think.” Peter’s voice sounds hoarse, like he had been crying or hadn’t used it in a while, or maybe both. “It’s just a big crowd, bound to be some crime. Responsibility and stuff.”

“Okay.”

He crouches down next to Peter. They watch the colorful mass move by. There seems to be a never ending stream of people to replace the ones that exit their sight.

Tony decides to take a risk. Sure, the last one didn’t payoff, but what is Tony Stark if not a bit of a reckless masochist.

“You know,” he says. “If you’re not ready to go down there as Peter Parker, you could always go as Spider-Man.”

Peter’s silent for far too long and Tony’s already berating himself for trying again when he is so obviously not the person who’s meant to do this kind of thing for Peter. He should have just called May way back in the beginning, before he destroyed the whole mentor/mentee relationship he somehow managed to stumble into.

Peter finally looks at him. “Isn’t there, like, a rule or something that says that superheroes shouldn’t take a political stance? Especially the ones with secret identities to keep.”

“First of all, I don’t think that being who you are should have to be a political stance. Second, I would argue that standing up for what you believe in may be even more heroic than punching an alien into the sun. Maybe we all should be taking a few more stands.”

Peter looks back down at the crowd below. Tony wishes he knew what the kid was thinking. He feels like he’s miles away.

“You’re serious? You think I should go down there, as Spider-Man?”

“I’ll be right back,” Tony says.

Peter’s mask crinkles up, and Tony can picture the confused face underneath. He flies down to a tent on the outskirts of the parade. Just as he hoped, they’re selling flags, nowhere near the size of the one he’d put in the factory, but they’ll do.

“Could I get a rainbow one? And whichever is for, um, bisexuals?”

The women in the tent gapes at the Iron Man suit before her. She wordlessly hands over the flags and Tony throws a hundred dollar bill on the table before taking off. 

Peter’s eyeing Tony with something like suspicion, his mask’s eyes squinting at the flags that Tony’s holding.

“I didn’t know specifically which one, for you,” Tony says sheepishly. “But I thought, the rainbow’s for everyone, right?”

“So you were serious about, um, being with guys before?” Peter gestures to the bi flag.

Tony nods. He wishes Peter would either take the flag or reject the flag. He hates this awkward limbo.

“I am gay,” Peter finally says. It’s barely louder than a whisper.

He wants to tell Peter how aggressively he supports him, in this and everything else. He wants to tell Peter that his very presence on earth makes it a better place, with or without the benefit of spider powers. He wants to tell Peter that he’s the son he never had, and if he does have a kid they’ve got a hell of a lot to live up to.

“That’s great,” Tony says instead. It seems inadequate. 

Peter must get some of the subliminal message because he gingerly takes the rainbow flag and ties it around his shoulder like a cape. He does the same to Tony’s flag. 

“You really don’t have to go down there with me, Mr. Stark,” Peter says. “I can go alone.”

“You can,” Tony shrugs. “But you don’t have to—unless you want to.”

“Let’s go.”

They make a grand entrance into the parade. Peter swinging in with a flip and Tony touching down next to him a moment later. The crowd goes absolutely nuts.

And sure, there might be some articles written about it. But, they’ll be mostly positive and Tony will hide the few negative ones from Peter. Pepper will probably have some extra work to do and Tony will have some questions to answer. None of that matters though. All of it is worth it for the way Peter’s smiling so big that Tony can see it through his mask.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! 
> 
> Also, if you're interested in something more sad, I would love for you to read [this](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19288219)
> 
> Find me on [tumblr!](https://peterparkrr.tumblr.com)


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